Family Time

From the Seattle area we took U.S. Hwy 2 over Stevens Pass through the Cascade Range to Leavenworth, a quaint Bavarian town, then to Wenachee, the apple capital of Washington. Summer was late here, too, so only the earliest apples were on the market. We, of course, purchased a few, but we’ll have to wait for most varieties. From Wenachee, we continued east on Hwy 2 through thousands of acres of wheat fields. While most fields had been harvested, and even some fields plowed and maybe even planted with next year’s crop, there were still a number of combines busily cutting grain. Interesting stuff for a California couple.

We reached Spokane around 3 PM, and headed north for 15 miles or so, to Deer Park. Debbie’s Aunt Alice and Uncle Skeet from Silver Creek, WA were camped with their long-time friends, Keith and Francie, in a beautiful RV & Golf Resort just east of town. They all enjoy playing golf, so this was the perfect spot. The weather was finally sunny and warm, which we really were looking forward to after all the rain and clouds we’ve had. While neither of us are golfers, just sitting in the sun was a great pleasure.

The RV Park is large and the individual campsites are huge! The concrete RV pads are about 14 feet wide and 100 feet long, with a wide patio at each site. A nice lawn surrounds the pads, and they allow guests to wash their RV’s and cars, so we were able to get the coach and the car reasonably clean in a day. We made several shopping trips into Spokane during the week, but we spent most of our time enjoying the park.

After a week in Deer Park, we packed up and followed Alice and Skeet to O’Sullivan RV Resort just south of Moses Lake, WA, about 125 miles from Deer Park. Their friends headed back to their home in Salem, OR. We spent four nights in Moses Lake with Alice and Skeet, and we were joined for the weekend by Debbie’s Aunt Ann, also from Silver Creek, and her son, John and his wife, Lory from Post Falls, Idaho. Their adult kids, Jennifer and John also joined us for the weekend, so it was a real family reunion. We haven’t seen any of them for at least five years, so we had a really good time visiting with all of them.

On Sunday morning, September 14th, we left the family still having fun at O’Sullivan, and headed south through Bend, OR to La Pine State Park, just south of Sunriver, OR. Our Holiday Rambler RV Chapter had held their first campout of the fall in Red Bluff the previous week, and a number of them continued north to La Pine for a week of camping. Our fellow Alaskan travelers were there when we arrived, so we had a great time catching up with them and all of our other camping friends.

A number of the ladies went to Sisters, a small touristy town about an hour north of La Pine one day, while several of the guys spent some time at a fish hatchery near La Pine. One evening we had a excellent potluck dinner to which everyone brought their own meat to grill and a side dish to share. Good food and fun!

On Wednesday, about seven motorhomes from our group packed up and headed for Salem, OR and an annual rally for diesel motorhomes. Tom is on the Board of Directors for this chapter which specializes in technical seminars on diesel-powered motorhomes. A number of our other RVing friends will be at this rally and another one, sponsored by our motorhome manufacturer, Monaco Corp. which will follow the diesel pusher rally.

We’ll have more to tell you soon.

The Lower 48

It rained all day Thursday in Vancouver, limiting our activities somewhat. We did make a trip to the grocery store and fruit/vegetable stand, as well as celebrating our last day in Canada with an excellent dinner at The Keg Restaurant.

Friday morning saw us heading east and south to the US Border crossing at Aldergrove. After satisfying the US Customs Service that we were neither terrorists nor wetbacks, we traveled to Lynden, WA, about 5 miles south of the border. Lynden was founded as a Dutch community, and many unusual rules established by the founders are still in effect. For example, no business can be conducted on Sunday, not even mowing the lawn or hanging out the laundry. Also, no dancing is allowed, except for the traditional Dutch clogging. Surprisingly, there is a liquor store next to the post office, but we’re told that the State requires it because of the size of the town (12,000). We walked the downtown and had a very good ‘comfort food’ dinner at Dutch Mothers.

Saturday morning we packed up and traveled about 15 miles west, to a farm where we met our friends, Pam and Karl. They spend several months each year at Karl’s Aunt Myrne’s farm, cleaning, repairing, mowing and other farm chores for his 96 year-old aunt. They took time off to show us around the area, including the Peace Arch Park at the Canadian border in Blaine, WA. The border runs right through the large arch, and there is a beautiful park on both sides of the border. In this area, a ‘secure border’ is a joke, since there is a community of homes on the Canadian side with no physical restriction to an adjacent park on the US side. We just walked across and back. Hmmm!


They also took us to Bellingham for lunch, then back that evening for dinner. Sometimes it seems like all we do is eat! The next day we picked a large bucket of wild blackberries on the farm and quickly froze them for cobblers & stuff at a later time. We’ve motorhomed with Pam and Karl, and also cruised with them. We last visited them at their new home near Albuquerque last fall and it was great to get together again.

On Labor Day we packed up and headed back to the Seattle area. We stayed at Lake Pleasant RV Park in Bothell, just north of Seattle. We’d stayed there for three days on the way north in May. Friends from Santa Rosa, Ron & Sue, came by just after we’d arrived and traveled with us (or more appropriately, we traveled with them) to Seven Cedars (Indian) Casino in Sequim, on the Olympic Peninsula. Longtime friends, Mike and Carol, were playing in a band at the casino that afternoon, and we thoroughly enjoyed their music, as did a large contingent of other folks who obviously love to dance to a live band. Their music covered the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s and was great to listen and dance to. The band’s schedule didn’t allow much time for visiting, so we’ll come back one of these days to catch up with Mike and Carol.

Monday morning we drove over to Ron & Sue’s new home in Sammamish, a suburb just east of Seattle. After Ron retired from the City of Santa Rosa, they decided to move closer to their two daughters and their families who live in the Sammamish area. They also motorhome, so now that school is back in session, they’re about to head for their other home in Indiana so they can spend time with Sue’s mother and catch up on the second home’s chores. They’ll leave their motorhome in New Mexico and return to spend time in that area when winter arrives in Washington. Tom and Ron worked together at the City, so we really had a good time catching up with them. We had lunch at the beautiful Newcastle Golf Club near their home.
We then went to Snoqualmie Falls, a gorgeous spot that Tom had visited about 45 years ago, but that Debbie has never seen. There are two power plants at the falls, one built in 1898, and the other in 1910. Snoqualmie River drops 270 feet, 100 feet higher than Niagara. We finished the day with dinner at a Japanese restaurant and enjoyed some sushi as we usually do when dining with Ron and Sue.

From Seattle, we headed to Deer Park, WA, near Spokane where we’ll spend about 10 days with Debbie’s Aunt Alice and Uncle Charles, AKA Skeet. We’ll tell you about our adventures with them the next time.